


College Wars

by AllAboutExceeds



Series: Fiore Sylva College [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Coma, Explosions, Gen, I'm running out of ideas - again, Implied/Referenced Torture, Magic-Users
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-18 09:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4700417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllAboutExceeds/pseuds/AllAboutExceeds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Waiting for the one person who made my life hell before moving college I remember the events that started this war"<br/>Crista is back for the second half of her first year at Fiore Sylva College, but when demons from a new rival college threaten her college can Crista put her past with Gajeel aside for the sake of her friends?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Threat Arrives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the 2nd fanfic in the Firoe Sylva College series - as you could probably tell from the link! - although I believe this story could probably stand alone as it's own story, there are some minor references to the previous story so if you haven't already read the previous story that may be a good idea. Anyway, in this chapter Crista meets her first Etherious demon and Tartaros Demonic Haven do their first war-declaring act! Enjoy! :)

I look across the café table at my black haired friend Rogue, his hair falls down over his face covering his right eye in its usual style and for some reason the scar across the bridge of his noise seems to stand out more than normal. Sitting next to Rogue is our mutual friend Sting, although the blonde haired boy usually annoys me, when we're with Rogue I can tolerate him, and today I certainly have to. We each have our exceeds on our laps. The ginger cat on my lap, Flash, keeps fiddling nervously at the buttons on her denim jacket. On Sting's lap is the reddish-brown cat Lector, he doesn't seem to have his normal amount of energy today and just stares at the door, none of us have much energy anymore. Except for the green exceed on Rogue's lap; Frosch is wearing his usual pink frog costume and seems oblivious to the whole situation. It's raining outside, the flash of lightning corrects me, no it's a thunderstorm - the perfect weather for this situation as our college is at war. Waiting for the one person who made my life hell before moving college I remember the events that started this war.

***

Walking down the path I can hardly even walk in a straight line I'm so dizzy. I hear a thud and look towards the ground on my right to see my pink haired friend collapsed on the ground, his face has a hint of purple due to the nausea he's feeling. "Natsu, if you have such severe motion sickness why did you suggest going on the new rollercoaster? It's supposed to have more loops than any other in the country!"

Natsu doesn't even both trying to get up, he just looks up towards me, "I lost a bet with Sting!" was all he said before trying to bury his face in the concrete ground.

Suddenly Natsu is lifted off the ground by our black, spiky haired friend, who has managed to lose his shirt again. Ignoring the calls of 'clothes' from the blonde and red haired girls behind us - Lucy and Erza - Gray almost shouts in Natsu's face. "Since when have you been hanging out with Eucliffe?!"

Natsu punches Gray in the face and collapses back to the floor looking like he'll vomit at any moment, "We have IT together, I was watching a quiz show and said the third answer would be the best, Sting walked up behind me and said the second would be the best. As we both have motion sickness we decided whoever was wrong would have to ride the new rollercoaster, the second was the best!" It's strange for Natsu's motion sickness to affect him for so long after he gets off the vehicle.

"Oh no, Natsu! Maybe I can help!" We look towards the source of the voice and see our blue haired friend Wendy running up towards us with the three exceeds - Natsu's blue exceed Happy, Wendy's white exceed Carla and my ginger one Flash - all running behind her.

"Wendy, you're a lifesaver!" Natsu exclaims after Wendy uses her Troia spell on him to relieve him of his motion sickness. With Natsu relieved of his affliction we decide to ride all of the fast rides in the park now so that Natsu can enjoy them too. Wendy's Troia spell lasts until we decide to ride the Ferris Wheel, for the majority of the ride Natsu is able to enjoy the view, this was apparently the first time he'd been able to do so. The carriages couldn't hold all six of us so we had to split into two groups: Wendy, Natsu and I rode in one with Flash and Carla; Erza, Gray and Lucy rode in the other with Happy. The Troia spell wore off for the last quarter of the ride and after trying to cast a second one Wendy's spell didn't have any effect on Natsu.

After Natsu's motion sickness returned we decide to play some of the arcade games until it was time to leave the seaside. Wendy wanted a large stuffed bear that you could win in a clearly rigged shooting game. It doesn't take me long to figure out how the rigged game works and I win the bear for her.

Returning back to the Fairy Tail guild hall we remember that this is the last Saturday before the second half of college starts again. We receive news that the new college that was being constructed has opened, it's called Tartaros Demonic Haven. None of use gave the other college much thought, just thinking it was ironic that a college had both Demonic and Haven in its name.

***

We've now been back in college for about a week, I currently have a free period. Of my three free periods this is the only one I share with Flash, we're sitting in our shared room, the other residents aren't here - Wendy has her Cores lesson and Carla also has a free period but decided to spend it in Wendy's lesson. Happy is also in our room, asleep, all of the exceeds have a free period now. I usually spend this time with Rogue and Frosch but Rogue was behind on work so is using it to catch up. Natsu and Erza have their Supernatural Theories lesson, Gray has his Magic Enchantments lesson and Lucy has her IT lesson. And for some reason I just can't shake this bad feeling I have.

"Hey Flash," Flash looks up at me, my sudden speech wakes Happy up and I apologise, "I've got a bad feeling, do you want to go flying, see if we can shake it off?" I turn back to my exceed and she gives me an enthusiastic grin before unfurling her wings, Happy next her unfurls his wings intending to join us.

We fly out through the window, normally I'd have gone through the door and outside before flying but this bad feeling is unsettling me so I want to do whatever I can to stop it. We fly over top of some of the other buildings with Happy following close behind us when the unthinkable happens. We're flying over building 2, looping around towards building 5 when an explosion engulfs the entire building! All three of us freeze, too shocked to move when I remember, _IT and Cores are in that building!_ We fly towards the rubble left over from the explosion, "WENDY! CARLA! LUCY!" I shout at the top of lungs when a blur catches my eye.

Immediately noticing where I want to go Flash turns in mid-air and we fly towards building 4, it's the library and where assembly and social gatherings are held, it's also currently where Rogue and Frosch are! I see the figure that had come from the explosion, he was young and muscular, I would've thought he was human if it wasn't for the ears that were in his shoulder length brown hair, his hands appeared black from where I was flying and he had a furry tail protruding from his lower back. I wonder if he caused building 5 to explode.

I don't have to wonder for long, as we fly closer the mysterious figure turns towards us, I can now see that his hands are black up until his wrists and after that there appears to be diamond patterns going up his arms. As he looks up at me his hair covers his left eye and his nose is small and canine-like. "Drat! I've been spotted!" when he speaks I see that his teeth are all pointed and fang like. We begin to fly closer but he raises a hand out towards us "I wouldn't come any closer human, or I'll blow up you and your little cat friend!" He then continues to cause an explosion in front of us but I manage to negate most of it with a crystal dragon wing attack. "Oh, so you're a little wizard then? I guess destroying you could be fun!"

I glare at the figure in front of me, "Who the hell are you and why did you blow up our building?!" My voice is full of anger but the figure doesn't look impressed.

He suddenly starts laughing up at me, "You've got a lot of nerve for a human, I'll humour you for now and play along. I'm Jackal, an Etherious demon, a member of the Tartaros guild and a student at the Tartaros Demonic Haven. So who would you be peppy little wizard?"

His arrogance annoys me but I don't know enough about Etherious demons to be confident enough to fight him. "My name is Crista Draco, I'm a Fairy Tail wizard and a student at Fiore Sylva College and you have made a big mistake attacking us!" I summon all of my courage to try and stop my words from wavering.

"Oh really? And why would that be, I only blew up one building!" The smirk on Jackal's face annoys me, _did he not know there were people in that building or did he just not care?_

"There were people in that building! People who had never done anything to you! They didn't deserve to..." but before I can finish an explosion to my right causes us to stagger in the air, almost falling we recover and fly back up and towards the left just as Jackal jumps towards us.

"They were only humans! Human lives mean nothing to me! They're inferior to demons and nothing more than my playthings!" He snarled as he lunged towards us. For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that I shouldn't let him touch me.

Flash knows exactly what I want to do before I even do it and starts flying backwards, out of reach of the Etherious, "Crystal Dragon, ROAR!" I aim my attack towards him but he easily negates it with his explosions.

"Attacks like that just don't work on me little wizard!" He snarls back up to me. Before either of us have the chance to do anything more Natsu flies in - carried by Happy - and lands a fire dragon iron fist clean on Jackal's jaw.

"Happy flew down to me and told me what happened," Natsu flies back towards me but his gaze never leaves Jackal, "Wendy and Carla's class was moved to building 3, they're both fine, but Lucy was in building 5 and they still haven't found her yet."

He lunges for another attack on Jackal despite me calling out for him not to. "I'd listen to her flame-head!" Jackal aims at Natsu after dodging his attack, "you don't know what happens to people who touch me!" Jackal indicates to a glowing mark on Natsu's fist where he'd hit Jackal earlier. Jackal smirks at Natsu and with a low laugh says "boom" before the mark explodes on Natsu's hand. Calling out to my friend we start to fly closer again but Jackal raises an arm warning us away. "I have to go now little wizard, Kyoka wants me back at college, but I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again real soon." He arrogantly grins up at me before jumping off and disappearing into the city.

"Natsu!" I call out to my friend who's still lying down on the ground. With the help of Flash and Happy we get Natsu back to the infirmary and explain to the teachers what happened.


	2. Hidden Facts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the second chapter of College Wars, in this chapter Fiore Sylva College is recovering from Jackal's unexpected attack and Crista turns to Levy for some help finding information on this new mysterious enemy they're faced with, Crista also has her first encounter with the flirtatious Loke. Enjoy! :)

It's been three days since that Etherious demon attacked our college. They've found all of the students who were in building 5; there were no fatalities but many students were seriously injured, including Lucy who is still unconscious. Even our best physician Porlyusica with the help of both Wendy and Chelia's healing magic couldn't bring her out of her coma. I have asked every teacher that I could find on campus - except Mr Jiemma because God he scares me! - about Etherious demons but no one seems to know anything, or at least nothing they want to tell me.

I am now walking towards Lucy's room, her roommate Levy is known for being a bookworm; although I'd already looked through every book I could find in the library on demons I am yet to find anything about Etherious demons. I hesitate outside of the door; _her roommate and friend is now in a coma would she really want to help me look for demons?_ I don't even have the chance to knock before the door opens, Levy is standing in the doorway. I had half expected her to ignore me knocking on the door so had definitely not expected her to open the door before I even knock! "Oh, hi Crista, I thought I heard footsteps out here." Levy's trying to keep her voice cheerful but is clearly troubled; I just smile at her, unsure of what to say. "Is there any more news on Lucy?"

I shake my head and Levy's eyes drop down to the floor, she'd clearly been hoping I was coming with news of Lucy's recovery. "Sorry, Porlyusica said she's still stable but there's no way to tell when she'll wake up." Levy nods slowly and I start to worry that she'll close the door on me. "Levy, that's not why I came here. I need your help with something." The blue haired girl opposite me looks up when I say her name and opens the door wider, inviting me inside.

We both sit on Levy's bed, neither of us wanting to disturb Lucy's, while I explain to her about what happened on the rooftop and how no one seems to know anything about Etherious demons. "Etherious demons? That sounds familiar. Hang on a second and I'll see if I can find anything." Levy then reaches into her bag and pulls out a laptop and starts to boot it up.

I look over to Lucy's bed, it's still unmade like she'd slept in it only yesterday. Following my gaze to where I was looking while waiting for her laptop to load Levy starts to speak. "I keep thinking I should make her bed and put her stuff away so everything's neat and tidy when she wakes up, but every time I go to, I realise that I've no idea where anything goes! Loke came up the other day to get a fresh set of clothes for her to change into when she wakes up but he seemed to know where things go better than I do and he's only ever here when she summons him."

At first I'm confused as to who Loke is but then remember Natsu telling me about how the celestial spirit Leo went by the name Loke before forming a contract with Lucy and many of the Fairy Tail mages still call him that. "I know how you feel. Natsu, Gray and I are all taking double notes so that she'll have a copy when she wakes up. It seems so silly but there's nothing else we can do except prepare for her to wake up." Neither of us have to say the thought but we both know the other's thinking it. _If she ever wakes up._

Levy's laptop finally loads and Levy types into Google: Etherious demons. The search results load and I read the number of hits: 'about 19,400 results' that's way too many to get through. Levy starts scanning through the pages, scrolling down so fast that I can't even read half of them and eventually chooses a link. "Here's the page I read that on!" Levy loads up the page and starts scrolling down at break neck speed, only now do I notice the Gale-Force Reading Glasses that's she's wearing. "Here it is!" Levy's sudden exclamation makes me jump a little but she doesn't notice. "According to this entry; Etherious is the given name to the subspecies of the Demon race that were created from the books made by the Dark Mage Zeref, they are made completely of Ethernano, with the exception of E.N.D., and were thus dubbed by Zeref as the 'Etherious'. Also, in stark contrast to the rest of the living organisms capable of doing so, all known Etherious demons do not make use of Magic, but rather Curses, which accordingly run off of Curse Power."

"Have you got a translation for that? Because most of it was gibberish!" The confusion is written clearly across my face at the detailed description Levy had given me about these demons.

The other girl smiles and giggles slightly at my remark. "Basically, they're demons that Zeref created from Ethernano, or magic particles, which don't use magic but use curses," she starts to scan further down the page, "it doesn't say anything about the differences between magic and curses though."

Thinking back over the passage Levy had read one part is still gibberish. "Didn't it say something about them running off 'Curse Power'? Does that mean they don't use Ethernano as an energy source? How do they get the power to use these curses? I'm still confused about that, Jackal didn't seem fatigued after blowing up a building and then causing even more explosions!"

"I don't know, it doesn't say here. I'll try looking up Curse Power." Opening a new browser tab Levy types into Google: Curse Power; about 64,000,000 results, this was going to take a while. After about 15 minutes of looking through WebPages Levy finally finds one she thinks could help. "There doesn't seem to be much on these curses and Curse Power but here's what this one says; whilst similar to Magic in several regards, Curses are more foul in nature and are superior in the regard that they, and those who utilize them, are unaffected by Magic-cancelling or nullifying objects. Curses are accordingly run off of Curse Power which is believed to be the manifestation of powerful, negative human emotions." Levy then continues with a sigh, "and that's all they have on curses."

Lunch then ends and I thank Levy for her help. Walking out of the dorms I look at my timetable to see I now have a Cores lesson. It's supposed to be in building 5 but they're still reconstructing it so the classes are split among the spare rooms in the other buildings. I head towards building 3 where my class was re-scheduled to be; building 3 usually has History lessons and optional lessons - which only senior students like Erza's boyfriend Jellal have. Walking through the building I'm thankful for Natsu's outburst the other day, someone had been joking around about the explosion and Natsu had pulverised them; now everyone avoids me, Erza, Natsu, Gray and Wendy at all costs.

I walk into Cores lesson, ignoring the many sympathetic looks thrown my way, much like Gray and Natsu who walk in behind me. Sitting down in my seat next to Sting, the blonde haired dragon slayer doesn't even look at me; he usually does everything he can to annoy me in his childish manner and Gajeel in front of me is usually egging him on or trying to start a fight but both boys stay silent - they'd both been avoiding me since the explosion. Only Rogue even talks to me, he acts like nothing important has happened which gains him a glare from Sting but I'm thankful for it - with everyone ignoring me it's a nice change to have a normal conversation with my friend.

Taking their seats on the desk behind me Gray and Natsu are both silent, the whole class knows they're still worried about Lucy by the fact they're not fighting. Mr Jiemma carries on with the lesson in his normal manner, but noticeably avoids giving the three of us any questions to answer. I almost run back to the dorms when the lesson finishes.

When I reach the Plaza I decide to go to the infirmary first, as I walk in I'm in my own world and don't notice Flash slightly ahead of me and step on her tail. Despite her yelp of pain I carry on walking around to Lucy's bed, I don't have the energy to argue with my exceed. Lucy still looks the same as she has for the last three days, her blonde hair is spread out on the pillow beneath her head and her face has many scars and scratches but other than that she looks unharmed. To a stranger who doesn't know what happened it just looks like she's sleeping. Sitting on the chair next to her bed is a young man that I haven't seen before. He is wearing a suit and has messy orange hair. Two strands of his hair sit straight upwards on his head and seem to resemble ears, it makes the rest of his hair look like a lion's mane. I presume this is Leo.

"Oh, hello. I expected Natsu or Gray to come by but I don't believe I've seen you before. Are you a friend of Lucy's? I'm Loke." The young man looks up at me and flashes me a bright grin.

 _Was he flirting with me while my friend, and his wizard, was in a coma?!_ I don't have the energy to argue or moan at him so just answer his question. "Yeah, I'm Lucy's friend. I'm Crista. If your Loke does that make you Leo the Lion?" I ask, I'm too curious to let my fatigue stop me.

"Yeah, I take it if you know who I really am then you're that new Fairy Tail wizard?" I nod my head at his question. "Sorry I haven't had the chance to meet my new guild mate." Before I can reply Gray, Natsu and Erza walk in. I decide it's time to leave so head back up to the dorms with Flash.


	3. Just A Bad Feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the third chapter, in this Crista has her second encounter with her new enemies the Etherious Demons, but Wendy manages to get dragged into the encounter too! Luckily for Crista they have Natsu on their side! Enjoy! :)

The rest of the week is relatively boring. All of the lessons go about the same as Cores did. In all of the Magical lessons the usual energy levels seem to have plummeted, most people don't attend Practical Magic class as it's just not the same without Lucy, no one seems to be able to focus on their spells in Magic Enchantments and although most spars start like normal in Magic Combat it doesn't take long for most of the class to give up. The most notable difference is the lack of fighting between Gray and Natsu in any lesson they have together.

I spend the majority of my free time in my room, avoiding most people and only really leaving to go to lessons or to check on Lucy. Natsu, Gray and Erza tend to leave me alone now; Natsu and Gray both spend most of their time in the infirmary and Erza spends a lot of her time with Jellal. Wendy spends most of her time with Carla, trying to keep everyone talking but I usually only see her in our room after lessons. The only person who checks on me is Rogue; I don't mind being left alone - it's what I thought I wanted - but when Rogue visits and we have everyday conversations just like we use to before the explosion I find I'm feeling better.

Now I'm in my room with Wendy, Flash and Carla. Wendy and I are both sitting in silence with our exceeds at the ends of the beds talking. I am trying to do my Supernatural Theories homework for tomorrow's lesson but I just can't seem to focus. I have another bad feeling that I just can't shake off. I put down my pen and sigh. "Is something wrong Crista? Are you stuck?" Flash immediately notices that I've stopped writing and now Wendy and Carla are looking at me too.

I shake my head and sigh again. "Nah, I just have a bad feeling again and can't seem to shake it off." I look out of the window when Flash speaks again.

"Do you want to go flying again? I could do with going outside!" I nod at Flash's suggestion and Wendy and Carla decide to join us. We walk out of the dorms into the Plaza and then fly up into the sky.

We haven't been airborne for more than five seconds before an explosion sends us all flying out of control. We manage to recover floating above building 3 and look back in shock; where the dorms had previously been is now a pile of rubble. I frantically look around and am relieved to see Rogue and Frosch - standing with Gajeel, Sting, Lily and Lector - in the Plaza looking in shock at the rubble; and Natsu, Erza, Gray and Happy running out of building 2, all unscathed.

Looking towards what remains of the dorms building I know not everyone would have been as lucky as we were to get out in time. A familiar blur catches my eye, heading towards building 1 and Flash is quick to respond, giving chase. "Crista! Wait a minute!" I hear Wendy calling behind me as she and Carla follow us.

Unlike the last time we'd chased a blur from an explosion the figure doesn't stop on top of building 1, he pauses long enough to look back at us in pursuit before jumping further away. He waited long enough for me to recognise the brown hair and furry tail and my assumption is confirmed. _Jackal!_

Speeding through the sky to keep pace with the fleeing figure of Jackal, he stops in an enclosed area next to another figure. As we circle down closer to the two figure I don't hear what Jackal says but the other figure nods, then looking up towards us says "looks like we have company". The other figure is clearly a demon like Jackal, the most distinctive feature I see is its face, the majority of it is covered by what looks like a helmet except for the mouth and eyes. Coming out of the sides of the helmet are two long wing-like pieces of hair curving out around its face and in the centre of the helmet where the forehead is, sits a large gem. As we fly in closer I see that the demon's hands and feet appear to be more like bird's talons; it speaks as we draw closer and I realise this one is female. "Good job leading them here Jackal, but it looks like you've brought more than agreed. Which one stopped you after one building?"

Jackal nods his head towards me in answer then jumps forwards, mere inches from where we've landed, immediately Flash and I back up, knowing what his curse can do if we make contact. "I told you that we'd be seeing each other again soon, peppy little wizard." Jackal's arrogance still annoys me and the grin on his face doesn't help.

"Jackal." I almost growl out in his direction, he grins again at the fact I can remember his name but before he can say anything I raise my arms to ready an attack. "Crystal Dragon, Wing Attack!"

My attack flies towards Jackal be he easily defends with his explosions, "Did you forget peppy little wizard, attacks like that just don't work on me" Having been watching from the sidelines Wendy decides to try her sky dragon roar while Jackal's distracted by me, but he uses his explosions to disperse her attack too. Turning to her but still speaking to me he snickers, "perhaps you should've taught your friend that too before bringing her along to the fight."

The other demon steps in front of Jackal putting a hand out to stop him and starts speaking. "Now Jackal, we were told to bring her back alive so you can't go destroying them remember. Now I'll increase their sensitivity to pain and then one small explosion should be enough to render them unconscious, don't get over-zealous"

"Of course not, Kyoka!" Jackal replies, a magic circle then appears on both Wendy and I and the fear I had felt towards the Etherious increases, tenfold. _I thought she said something about pain, not fear!_ I glance towards Wendy but see her also looking terrified. I see Jackal casting his bomb curse but the fear stops me from moving. Frozen, the explosion hits me full force, and my entire body fills with pain, landing back on the floor I struggle to even keep my eyes open.

I see Wendy attacked too and the two demons starting to approach us, calling out with the last of my strength I beg my friend "Flash, take Carla and FLY!" Horror on her face, Flash obliges and flies away with Carla, promising to bring help. And then my entire world fades to black.

***

I take in a deep breath of cold air before forcing myself awake. I'm lying in the middle of a small, dark cell with bars on one side and stone walls for the other three, my entire body aches. I wouldn't have been able to see anything inside of the cell if it wasn't for the fact that I had the eyes of a dragon. Looking down at my clothes I am now wearing a plain grey t-shirt, similar to the one I was wearing before facing Jackal and Kyoka, and plain grey tracksuit bottoms. Clearly the demons wanted to make sure that I didn't have anything I could use to escape this cell. I then spot the yellow glow on my left wrist; circling my wrist is an intricate pattern that is very similar to the one that appeared on Natsu after he struck Jackal.

I don't have long to wonder about what happened when Jackal walks in with a young man, his black hair is long and wavy, reaching his shoulders although the majority of it is tied up in a very large ponytail. "I don't see why we don't just kill her Mard, she's only a human! It's not like she poses any kind of threat to us." Jackal is clearly frustrated at the fact I'm still alive.

The other man, who I assume to be Mard, silences Jackal as he replies. "You said yourself that she knew about your curse before you even explained it. She moved away from you and even warned her friend about using attacks that make physical contact at the start of your fight, we need to know how she knows these things." The man then looks towards me, "ah, you're awake. Good." He says with a smirk, I just glare in return. "Bring her out." He directs towards Jackal.

As Jackal walks towards me I move away but he roughly grabs my wrist where the glowing mark is and I'm dragged towards Mard. Smirking at me Mard grabs my chin, forcing me to look directly in his face, I just glare - there isn't much else I can do! "So, little human, I understand your name is Crista - although it is of little importance. My name is Mard Geer and I'm the Etherious demon currently in charge of this guild." He doesn't stop smirking while he talks and I don't stop glaring, _I will not give you the pleasure of seeing any weakness!_ "Now you faced my comrade Jackal in battle earlier and seemed to already know of his abilities, and I want to know how."

At first I just glare at the Etherious, when I eventually reply my tone is filled with sarcasm, "oh, I don't know. Magic?" It wasn't technically a lie, I really didn't know! I'd just had a strange feeling that I couldn't explain. "Tell me what you've done to Wendy!"

"I told you she wouldn't tell us anything." Jackal makes his annoyance known and tightens his grip around my wrist. I yelp out partially in pain and partially in surprise but Jackal just grins at me and tightens his grip further, I bite down on my bottom lip to stop myself yelling out again.

Mard sighs before talking to me, the smirk back on his face. "I wouldn't worry about what might have or might not have happened to your friend and would worry about what is soon to happen to you human. We are Etherious demons, your pitiful excuse for power that you call magic is no match for our curses, they are.." But it's my turn to cut off the Etherious before he can finish.

"Oh I know all about your curses!" This was a lie, the information Levy and I had found on curses was very limited but I wasn't going to tell them that! "Your curses are only a foul version of our magic. Your power brought about by negative emotions like hatred and anger, but the power we gain through our bonds of friendship and love will trounce your curses any day!" I put all of my emotion into my words despite the fear I have for these demons.

I hear the low, mocking laugh from Jackal and he says "Oh really" while moving my hand up towards his face. I struggle to pull my arm out of his hand but his grip is too tight. "because..." he bites the back of my hand, causing me to yell out in pain. As he lowers my hand back down I see the spots of blood arranged in an almost perfect circle; when he continues speaking the tips of his teeth still have my blood on them "it seems like I have complete control over you without the need for my curse." I just glare at the demon, speechless.

Mard Geer just sighs at my stubbornness, "very well, take her down to Kyoka and see what she can get out of her. After Kyoka's through with her you can kill her Jackal." Jackal grins and drags me out of the room and into a narrow corridor.

Despite my best efforts to get out of Jackal's grip I am still dragged further down the corridor. An explosion blasts through the outside wall, forcing both of us against the opposite wall although Jackal is hit by the majority of the force. I recognise the intense orange flames and see the glowing mark on my wrist fade. I feel a hand on my shoulder and assume it's a demon so try to shake it off, as I turn and see the pink mob of hair relief sweeps over me and I throw my arms around my friend. Natsu hesitates at first by does return the hug, although we don't stay in that position for long. If Erza ever found out I'd never hear the end of it.

Turning in the direction Jackal had been dragging me Natsu says he can smell Wendy and we start to run down the corridor, Flash and Happy flying behind us - apparently Carla had stayed behind incase we made it out on our own. It's not long before we're stopped by a large group of demons, I see both Kyoka and Jackal but see no sign of Mard Geer. Trying to fight his way through the demons Natsu is eventually taken down by a similar combination to the one that took Wendy and me down - Kyoka increasing his sensitivity to pain and another demon attacking him. With Natsu unconscious on the ground I'm left with an almost impossible choice - stay and fight a battle where the odds are stacked against me to try and find Wendy, or take Natsu and get out leaving Wendy behind. Flash and I are both quick to come to the same conclusion and I run forwards to grab Natsu as I feel Flash's paws grip the back of my t-shirt; blasting through the wall with a crystal dragon roar Flash and Happy help me carry Natsu back towards the college. Even if we'd stayed, there's no way we could've found Wendy without more help!

We haven't been flying for long before the pain in my left hand becomes too much and I have to give in and let Happy carry Natsu's unconscious body the rest of the way back. It's not long before the events of the last few days begin to take their toll and I feel the fatigue starting to pass over me. I see the familiar buildings of our college, building 5 is almost entirely reconstructed and work has started on the dorms building; my tiredness getting the best of me my world fades to black again and I let Flash carry me the rest of the way home.


	4. We Do As Fairy Tail Would!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the 4th chapter of my fanfic, in this chapter Loke is back to his flirtatious ways and Crista has to 'motivate' Gajeel to get his help in the rescue plan. Enoy! :)

I wake up to find that my entire body aches, looking around I see that I'm in the infirmary; sitting in the chair next to my bed, with his head resting on the bed while he sleeps I see Rogue. _Why am I aching so badly? Did I fight with Gajeel again?_ I sit up and it causes my head to hurt more, raising my left hand to my temples I feel bandages rubbing against my head as I attempt to sooth my headache. Bringing my arm down in front of my I see the bandage around my hand and the small red dots on the back of the bandage arranged in an almost perfect circle where the blood had seeped through; the memory of what had happened over the last week comes flooding back to me. Remembering that my friend had been hurt trying to help me I start calling out for Natsu; waking Rogue up, he tries to calm me back down but I continue to shout out until Erza and Gray walk in with Natsu limping between them. Relieved to see my friend relatively unharmed I remember the state Lucy had been in before I left and cut off all the remarks floating around about my need to rest to ask about her.

Loke walks in from around the corner with his usual bright grin, "She still hasn't woken up yet but Porlyusica said her brain appears to be responding to more stimuli now, it's more like a deep sleep similar to aesthetic than a coma." I start to relax after hearing the good news when Loke decides to speak again, "but how is it you still seem to shine so brightly despite your current injuries, I bet angels would be jealous of the glow I see when I look at you."

 _He's flirting with me again?!_ It's obvious I'm not the only one who finds his sudden remarks inappropriate but I am the first to respond. "Our friend and your wizard is unconscious in the infirmary bed just down the hall. Our other friend and guild mate has been kidnapped by demons. Do you really think it's appropriate to come on to me now!?" My outburst towards Loke causes my head to spin and I bring a hand up to my head to try and steady it.

"I can't help but remark on your stunning beauty Crista, you shine as brightly as any crystal I've ever seen." Loke seems to find no problem flirting despite the current situation.

I'm close to slapping the celestial spirit but don't get the chance, I see him reel back in pain and when he brings his hands away from his face there are four long scratch marks bleeding down to his chin. Flash lands neatly back on the bed where I hadn't noticed her curled up by my side. "I don't give a damn if you're Leo the Lion, leader of the 12 Golden Zodiac Keys, or a new born kitten - if you distress my friend then I will stop you! Your inappropriate comments towards Crista are causing her stress and that's aggravating her wounds, you need to stop or leave!" Flash demands, I had never heard her sound quite so scary until then.

Before anyone can respond I see the slim, tall figure of the elderly woman Porlyusica, her pink hair is tied in its usual bun on the back of her head by two large pins with crescent moon-shaped edges, this wasn't the first time I'd been treated by the old lady. "Ok, she needs rest so you should all leave." All of the people gathered around the bed file out of the room - terrified of the old woman - except for Flash who is still curled up next to me and Rogue who moves his chair back away from my bed slightly and just glares towards the old lady - as if challenging her to try and make him leave. After a staring competition between Rogue and Porlyusica the old woman gives in tutting and just saying 'humans' while shaking her head, she turns back to me. "You need to rest child, it's a wonder you survived the journey back to the college with the number of burns over you from the explosions, and even more of a wonder that you were able to carry Natsu at all with the infection in your hand. Heroics over you need to rest now, here..." the old woman hands me a small bottle with a clear liquid inside "...take this, it'll help you to sleep," Sceptically, I take the medicine and within seconds I'm asleep.

I don't know how long it's been since Wendy and I were kidnapped by Tartaros, but we have a plan now. Natsu has gone to speak to Laxus Dreyar and Erik Cobra, Gray and Erza have the task of rounding up as many wizards who will help as possible, Carla and Happy have gone to speak to the other exceeds to get their assistance - we need at least two more if this plan will work. As for Flash and I, we're now walking to a local café - in the rain! - to meet up with Rogue, Sting and Gajeel.

Walking in, Sting and Rogue have already chosen a table, four cups of hot chocolate on said table. I can't stand hot chocolate and Rogue knows it, this was clearly Sting's idea; out of politeness I drink half of the cup as we wait for Gajeel - who is late, again. Gajeel runs into the café, cradling a terrified looking Pantherlily. "Lily is afraid of thunder and lightning, although he wouldn't admit it if you asked him!" Flash on my lap informs me.

"Don't mock him Flash, we need Gajeel's help to get the best result from this plan. Anyway, everyone's afraid of something!" I whisper to my exceed as Gajeel takes the seat next to me. The thunder and lightning outside match my mood perfectly.

"So, what's so important that you dragged us out through the rain then?" Gajeel glares at me as he enquires about the reason for this meeting. Initially Rogue glares at the iron dragon slayer for his harsh tone but curiosity gets the best of him as he looks towards me - like Sting - awaiting my answer.

Placing the cup of hot chocolate back on the table, I purposely pause to irritate the dragon slayer. "I need you to help me break into Tartaros Demonic Haven." I reply, my tone is cold and flat holding no emotion behind my words.

None of the dragon slayers succeed in hiding their shock at my request. "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Gajeel shouts out in reply, "Do you want to get us all killed!" Sting shakes his head at me, signifying his agreement with Gajeel. Rogue just stays still, I'm not sure if he hasn't decided or doesn't want to tell me how insane I am sounding right now.

Gajeel is about to get up when I beat him to it, standing up I slam my hands down on the table - _I am not taking no for an answer!_ All three dragon slayers look up to me in surprise and it's obvious I haven't hidden any of my anger. "They have attacked our college, injured our friends, even kidnapped some of them..." Gajeel attempts to butt in saying that Wendy is my friend not his but I'm not done talking yet "...you can't be seriously telling me that you don't want payback! They are our classmates and we have to fight for them!" Straightening up I turn to Gajeel and hope the rumour I'd heard is true. "From what I've heard you want to join Fairy Tail Gajeel," he nods slightly reassuring me that the rumour was true, "well, Fairy Tail never gives up on their comrades! They are our family and they have been attacked, attacking them is attacking all of us so we need to teach these demons that we won't stand for them doing that! You have tormented me for as long as you've known me Gajeel, well now we need to work together for the sake of our college! WE ARE AT WAR!" At the end of my speech I see both Sting and Rogue now nodding at me, they're on my side. After what felt like an eternity of silence Gajeel reluctantly nods as well. Now my job here is done.

***

Back at college, Natsu has managed to drag both Laxus and Cobra into our plan, apparently both were also pretty reluctant. The majority of the other students - including the exceeds - agreed to help. They'll be at the front of the Tartaros Demonic Haven acting as a distraction, hopefully that'll be enough to draw most of the demons out while I and the six dragon slayers fly in via exceeds - along with Carla - to find Wendy and get her out. Happy and Carla managed to get most of the exceeds to join in the plan, so some will also help with the distractions; in the end a light blue exceed called Samuel who is Pantherlily's friend and a yellow cat called Nichiya who is the substitute teacher for the exceeds will be taking Cobra and Laxus into the rival college.

It's the evening before we put our plan into action; everyone knows their roles in the plan but there's something I need from Levy before we head out tomorrow. With the dorms still a pile of rubble all of the students are sleeping in various guild accommodation, luckily Levy and I are both part of the same guild so both got Fairy Tail accommodation. Levy is a user of solid script magic and can therefore write words that take on the effects of the word. I have recently learnt that, just like dragon slayers, I can restore my own energy by consuming crystals so I hope that Levy could write me some crystals that I can take into the Tartaros Demonic Haven with me.

Preparing to head in to battle, I now have my battle armour on, some of the loops that were designed for weapons I've managed to transform into pockets to hold the packs of crystals Levy had created for me, now if we get into a fight in the rival college I don't have to worry about my energy levels getting too low. We're setting out for the plan, Erza and Gray have already lead the students who volunteered to help to the front gate of the college and are sending an onslaught of magic attacks onto the college. I'm flying above to scene - with Natsu, Rogue, Sting, Gajeel, Laxus and Cobra - to blast another entrance into the college. As we fly overhead I realise that I can't name any of the demons by the front gate - that means Jackal, Kyoka and Mard Geer must still be inside the college. I'm not too worried as we have a plan to deal with them. As we fly over top of the college another strange feeling engulfs me, but not a bad feeling like when Jackal blew up our buildings, more like ... a protective feeling - it's hard to tell if I feel protected by something or protective of something.


	5. Time For A Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the 5th chapter. It's time for the dragon slayer team to put their rescue plan into action and get Wendy back, but will they succeed or can the Tartaros demons stop them? Enjoy! :)

Finding the area where Natsu and I had escaped from wasn't too hard, the wall stood out where the shabby patch up had been done. A combination of all our roars easily blasts through the wall, luckily there was no one in the corridor to try and stop us. We split into the three teams we'd decided on in the plan. Gajeel, Laxus and Cobra - their job is easy, destroy as much of the college as possible to keep the demons' attention off the other groups. Rogue and Sting  head down towards the cell I'd been kept in to try and find Wendy down there and Natsu and I head further up the corridor in the direction we'd been headed in before we were stopped last time.

Getting to the end of the corridor Natsu pushes open a large wooden door, stepping through even I can smell Wendy's scent all over the room. What worries me is the scent is mixed in with the scent of blood and the strange looking devises laid about all over the room - some of which still have blood stains - look like old fashion torture devices. _What the hell have they done to Wendy?_ Turning to Natsu I can see from the look on his face that he's as troubled as I am. He sniffs the air and then starts walking across the room, "her scent's strongest this way" he says pointing at the door on the opposite side of the room. With Happy, Flash and Carla all close behind us we walk across the room.

Pushing open the door we're greeted by an almost pitch black room and the sounds of someone crying softly. I know that, like me, Natsu's dragon eyes would quickly adjust to our dark surroundings but he uses his flames to light up the room anyway - presumably for the exceeds - and we're all shocked by the scene in front of us. "WENDY!" We all shout out in unison; Natsu and the cats run forward to try and free her but another bad feeling is stopping me. The younger girl is curled up in the middle of the cell, her clothing is torn and she'd bleeding from the rips; she's also the source of the soft crying. When we call out her name she looks up at us, her face is filled with fear but when she recognises us she gives us a small smile but the tears don't stop. _My friend is in pain why am I not helping to free her?_ After giving myself a mental kick I remember where the latch locking my cell had been and aim a crystal dragon roar at the same point on her door, blowing it apart in the process.

Natsu and Happy lead the way back down the corridor, Carla and I help Wendy back towards the hole in the wall and Flash keeps an eye out behind us incase any demons spot us and start to tail us. We can see the hole ahead of us when we spot a group of demons chatting and walking towards us, they haven't spotted us but Natsu seems to want to fight them anyway. "Natsu, we can't fight them! Wendy's too badly hurt to risk one of us getting hurt too!" He looks like he's about to argue but my stern expression is enough to make him give in and he agrees to go back the other way and find another exit.

After walking past the torture room we find another hole in the wall, hoping Gajeel's group had made the hole we fly out through it and find ourselves on the roof of one of the lower buildings. Walking towards the edge of the building the scene below us shows a fight is going on, at first we assume it's just a demon brawl - just like the brawls Natsu and Gray have at our own college - but when two of the figures are beaten backwards we immediately recognise them to be Sting and Rogue, both of which now activate their dragon force and launch a combined roar at their enemies. We see Lector and Frosch cheering out in delight from behind a large rock a safe distance behind them as the dust and smoke from the Twin Dragon's attack engulfs the demons - we can no longer see any of them. To everyone's surprise it's not long before and explosion clears away the dust and a familiar figure steps towards the Twin Dragons, "Jackal" the word is hardly even audible as I say it through my gritted teeth. As Jackal walks out he's followed by Kyoka and Mard Geer, all three grinning at our friends. Before we have a chance to do anything thorny vines emerge from the ground, ensnaring both Rogue and Sting - despite being in their dragon force forms, neither are able to escape.

I see Jackal walk towards my friends, "ROGUE! STING!" I don't remember moving but I am now jumping towards the scene, readying an attack. I see Jackal starting to use his curse and land directly in front of him, it takes him by surprise despite my shouts to my friends. "Crystal Dragon, Slash!" Knowing what would happen if I made contact with the Etherious I aim my attack at his explosion, expecting it just to disperse his attack I'm surprised when he's send flying backwards by the blast. Then I remember what happens when a first generation dragon tamer attempts to protect their friends in mortal danger and realise why Jackal had been so surprised when I'd landed in front of him, he hadn't been surprised at the fact I'd been there but how different I'd looked. My floating - now sparkling silver - hair, shining patches on my skin, crystal gems lining my shoulders and the faint glow the colour of light being split by a prism all show how I'm now in my own dragon force form. Rather than attacking the demons in front of me I twist around and aim my attack at the thorns that have ensnared my friends. "Crystal Dragon, ROAR!" Rogue and Sting both land easily back on their feet - with their own dragon forces active and Frosch and Lector flying towards us - Natsu has also jumped down to my side followed by Flash and Happy; Carla flying with Wendy still up by the rooftop.

"Oh, that is just such a pain little human." Mard Geer aims towards me as he steps forward. Jackal immediately moves back out of the way as the other Etherious steps past him.

I don't even get the chance to reply before Natsu steps in, "Oh, if it's a pain to you then it must've have been a good thing!" Natsu starts to walk towards Mard Geer but I reach out and grab his shoulder stopping him, using a technique I'd learnt in Magic Enchantments class I focus my energy and flood my friend's system with a high amount of Ethernano giving the fire dragon slayer access to his dragon force form. In his dragon force form Natsu is the least changed of us four dragon slayers/tamer, with only the addition of scale like patterns to his face.

Faced with four dragon slayers/tamer all in their dragon force form, it's obvious from their faces that our enemy can sense the increase in magic energy from our new forms. The fight doesn't last long, none of even had to use our secret arts; Jackal's attacks have no effect on Natsu as he can just eat the explosions so it doesn't take long for Natsu to take him down, a few fire dragon iron fists and fire dragon flame elbows later and Jackal's been dealt with. During Natsu's fight Sting and Rogue easily overcome Kyoka with their teamwork and increased power and it's not long until she's out of the picture, their unison raid spell of holy shadow dragon flash fang truly has a terrifyingly strong power. And I didn't have too much trouble dealing with Mard Geer in my dragon force form. The thorny vines that had ensnared Rogue and Sting attempted to capture me as well, but it doesn't take me long to overcome them with my crystal dragon magic. "You're not quite so cocky now are you Mard?" I called out with a grin on my own face as I delivered the final blow, my own crystal dragon talon takes him out of the fight. I didn't even have to use any of the crystals that Levy had made for me, although I did feel like the Etherious had been holding back in our match.

During our fight the other dragon slayer team had made a loop around the college to the building on the opposite side to the one we'd existed onto, Wendy and Carla had flown over to them and Laxus was helping Wendy to stay upright. Deactivating our dragon force forms our exceeds fly over to us and we all fly back up to the rest of the group. With Wendy back safe it is time to return to our own college. Flying across the top of the college we'd already made it out of their grounds when I remember that we haven't sent the signal to the group at the front gate for them to retreat now. I volunteer to double back and give them the signal and then Flash and I start to circle around. Reaching the front gate I see that the majority of it has been destroyed in the distraction and our army of students have actually started to head into the college, although kept back by many demons. At the head of the demons is a young looking man with short, black hair - it looks like he's in charge at the college. Launching an attack into the air, my crystal blast fans out into the shape of the Royal Emblem of Fiore, the signal that the mission was a success. I immediately see both Erza and Gray start leading the students back to the college and start making my own way back.

Heading back to our own college I can see the other students retreating, most have spread out now into smaller groups as some of the more rash demons attempted to pursue them and splitting up was the easiest way to lose them. I've been keeping an eye out behind me in case any had spotted me and try to follow but I haven't spotted anything and haven't gotten any of the bad feelings I seem to keep getting when demons are involved. We have gotten Wendy back, even roughed up some of the demons in the process and Lucy was on the road to recovery, _maybe this is just about over._


	6. Too Good To Be True

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the 6th chapter, it seems like everything is returning back to normal, Gray and Natsu are fighting again, Lucy's up and about, and Wendy's back too. But like most things, it's just too good to be true! Enjoy! :)

It's been a fortnight since we got Wendy back from Tartaros Demonic Haven. She's completely recovered physically, although she does worry a little when it comes to going outside alone - although it's rare that any of us would let her. Lucy has also woken up, although Porlyusica hasn't let her out of the infirmary until today and she's been told that she has to go back to her daily. We haven't had any more disturbances from the demons since we rescued Wendy and college is finally getting back to normal, and Christmas is getting close - may favourite holiday of the year!

"Fusion Dragon, ROAR!" I launch my attack, combined with the power of Natsu's fire dragon magic through my fusion dragon adsorption technique, towards Gray and Erza opposite me.

"Ice-Make, Shield!" I hear Gray call out and see Erza requipping. As the dust clears I see Gray, unharmed as his ice shield shatters from the force of my attack, and see Erza emerging from behind her Adamantine Armour. We hardly have a chance to catch our breath before they take their turn to attack; "Ice-Make, Saucer" Gray launches his attack towards Natsu who's quick to respond, melting it with his fire dragon magic.

Erza requips into her Black Wing Armour and starts her advance towards me, "Moon Flash" Erza slashes out towards me in a cross pattern, I raise my arms in front of me and bring up my crystal dragon scales in defence. Just before her attack lands we hear the bell sound for the end of lunch and the start of the next lesson, Erza flaps her black wings as she propelled herself backwards and away from me. "That was a good fight Crista, you're definitely as strong as I've heard! Easily the same level as Natsu and Gray!" Erza complimented me, earning complaints from both Gray and Natsu - but more that they weren't on the same level as each other than I'm not on their level. I have Cores with Natsu and Gray now, whereas Erza has History with Lucy and Wendy.

Sitting down next to Sting in Cores class he's back to his childish teasing but I just ignore him. "This lesson will be cut shorter as all staff have a meeting tonight. Now, everyone turn to page 25 of your science textbooks and we'll recap last lesson." Mr Jiemma orders the class, turning to page 25 it's the questions linking the enzymes topic and the digestive system topic - we finished the enzymes topic last lesson and we're starting the digestive system topic this lesson which was the first topic I'd learnt in my old school - as I move my left hand over the page my eyes drift back to the small scars on the back of it arranged in a circular pattern and the memories I'd been trying to ignore start coming back. "Cristallia," Mr Jiemma saying my full name draws me back into the present time, I cover my left hand with my right one and look up at the teacher, it takes most of my self-restraint not to glare at him - I hate my full name and Mr Jiemma was the only teacher who hadn't agreed to use my nickname Crista! "Why don't you answer the first question?"

I look back down at the question: _outline the enzyme activity involved in the digestion of starch._ I sigh, _if he's going to try and catch me out at least give me a hard question!_ "Initially the starch is broken down into maltose by the enzyme amylase, the maltose is then broken down into two glucose molecules by the maltase enzyme." I reply, it's not the first time he's tried to catch me out with a question.

"Very good, and what type of saccharides are starch, maltose and glucose." More easy question he's trying to catch me out with.

"Starch is a polysaccharide, maltose is a disaccharide and glucose is a monosaccharide." I reply and Mr Jiemma nods and turns away, clearly annoyed that he couldn't catch me out. It's not the first time that he's tried to catch me out, and except in English when I accidently said 'me and my friend' instead of 'my friend and I' despite writing it correctly, he hadn't managed to yet.

The shorter Cores lesson still feels like it took forever, as usual I'd finished the questions very quickly and spent more of the lesson helping Natsu and Gray behind me to understand them too. We still had a third of the lesson left when they'd finished the questions and the two boys almost immediately started fighting again. Turning back to the front and hoping Natsu and Gray would stop fighting soon I was surprised to see Rogue and Gajeel arguing on the desk in front of me. Although I couldn't hear them properly over the fight behind me I managed to get the gist of it - Gajeel wanted to copy Rogue's answers but Rogue was as stuck as Gajeel was and that's a rare sight indeed! I glance over towards Mr Jiemma and see he's engrossed in his marking so kick Gajeel's chair in front of me. He turns around and glares towards me, Rogue also looks to see what's got the iron dragon slayers attention. With a smirk on my face I ask "need a little help there?"

Gajeel continues to glare at me and looks like he's about to turn down my offer for help when Rogue answers first, "Are you telling me you actually understand this stuff Crista?" he whispers at me, I nod in reply and he continues, "then sure thing, I've no idea what it's looking for!" Rogue's acceptance of my help causes the iron dragon slayer to turn his glare towards Rogue but the shadow dragon slayer doesn't back down, "if you want to copy my answers then I need to know them first! If Crista gets it then I'm going to accept her help." Gajeel gives in and I explain the work to Rogue.

I head back to my room in the now rebuilt dorms. As I open the door the room is empty, I guess the others are still on their way from their lessons. I take out my radio CD player and switch on the radio, one direction music starts playing, "you've got to be kidding me!" I switch the channel and am now greeted by Justin Bieber "I am not dealing with this right now!" I switch the player to its CD mode and Six Degrees of Separation starts playing, I flop down backwards onto my bed and sigh "Thank God for The Script!" Almost immediately the door opens again and Wendy, Carla and Flash all walk in, flustered I start apologising without even thinking, "oh sorry, I can turn the music off if you want."

Shaking her head Wendy smiles at me, "it's fine, I don't know who they are but they sound good!" She smiles again but I can see Carla doesn't approve.

I smile back at Wendy, "They're called The Script, they're an Irish pop-rock band!" I reply, glad to have found someone else who likes similar music to me.

Carla steps forward with a scornful look on her face, "I don't think it matters who they are Wendy, they don't sound like a band a young lady like yourself should listen to." The exceed remarks to her wizard.

"And are you saying Crista isn't a 'young lady' then Carla? Anyway, why should gender effect the type of music you listen to? Wendy can listen to whomever she wants!" Flash  remarks towards the other exceed.

Eager to stop my enthusiastic exceed from fighting again I switch off the music and turn to Wendy. "So, what are does college do for Christmas usually?" I ask, I always love Christmas.

Wendy frowns a little in thought. "We don't usually do much except exchanging presents on Christmas day, and that only in our small friendship circles. I wish we did more though!"

I feel my jaw drop open in shock, _they don't do anything for Christmas?! I've got to change that!_ "You don't do anything for Christmas? But it's the best holiday of the year! We've got to do something! Maybe Erza can do a Christmas themed quiz night, and we've got to have a Christmas dinner! We should have a party too!" Seeing the smile on Wendy's face at the ideas we walk out to try and find Erza and Lucy. Flash and Carla have no choice but to follow us.

Waking up the next morning our floor is littered with papers, trying to organise Christmas for the whole college wasn't exactly easy after all. After finding Erza and eventually managing to drag her away from Jellal she'd agreed that we needed to do more for Christmas and immediately set to planning - as the self-appointed events manager of the college would! - and it's not long before we've dragged Lucy, Natsu and Gray into helping - some were more cooperative than others.

Quickly sorting out the papers into somewhat neat piles we get changed and head down to the small dorms cafeteria to meet up with the others. "So, any bursts of inspiration overnight Natsu?" I smile at my pink haired friend who seems to have more energy than usual - if that's even possible! - while I sit down, croissant in hand.

"Oh come on Crista! This is Natsu we're talking about, he's only ever inspired when fighting!" Lucy remarks with a laugh as I sit down with my friends, Wendy sitting next to me.

"Hey, I can be as insipid as I want to be when I want to be!" Natsu retorted, gaining a laugh from just about everyone at the table, to which Natsu just cast a confused look around the group.

Stifling my laugh to just a smirk I explain Natsu's mistake to him, "the word is inspired Natsu, not insipid." He still looks at me confused, like he didn't realise the two words were different, so I continue. "Inspired means you've been given ideas or energy to do a task with, usually thought to be by a spirit or some supernatural influence. Whereas insipid means lacking flavour, weak or tasteless. Two very different things Natsu, I don't think you've felt insipid!" I finish with another smile and Natsu starts to turn pink, clearly embarrassed by his mistake. Trying to move away from the topic I ask him, "if you're not inspired then why do you seem to have so much energy today Natsu?"

He perks up at my question. "Didn't you hear, 1st period's being cut short for an emergency assembly and then the rest of the day's been cancelled! No lessons today!" He's smirking at the lack of lessons but I immediately have a bad feeling.

My tone now serious, and my expression probably matches it I ask, "it must be something important then, for them to cancel the whole day?"

Gray smiles at my serious expression, "I wouldn't worry too much, it's probably just another magic council issue, they always close the college for those!" I smile at my friend to try and reassure him that I believe him but can't shake the bad feeling, and the look on my exceed's face from on my lap tells me Flash knows it.

I walk into History class slightly later than my friends as Flash had been worried about my bad feeling but I'd reassured her it'd be fine, _it's not like there's anything we can do about it!_ As I walk in I hear the familiar sound of Gray and Natsu arguing, as I look around I see the room is covered in ice and Lyon is hiding in the corner of the room. "You shouldn't have butted your nose in flame brain!" Gray shouts at Natsu.

"Well maybe you should have listened to Mrs Risley when she told you to sit down pervy popsicle" Natsu replies and I now notice the teacher trying to stop the two fighting, _I'd call Natsu a hypocrite but he wouldn't know what it means!_

"Yeah, like you'd have just sat down squinty eyes!" Gray did have a point there!

"You're one to talk droopy eyes!" Natsu, this is just going in circles!

"You asking for a fight flame breath?!" Gray again,

"Bring it popsicle breath!" Natsu.

"Oh I'll bring it Tabasco idiot!" _Now you're just being silly Gray!_

"Let's go then ice princess!" Gray and Natsu were now forehead to forehead and Mrs Risley looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

Sighing I walk towards the two boys, _I think it's time I finish this before Erza comes in and kills them!_ Stepping up to the two boys, neither even notice I'm there - until I launch an attack between them. "Fusion Dragon, Nova!" although small so harmless, the blast is enough to stop them fighting and separate them, so I stand in the new gap and put a hand on each of their chests - pushing them further away. "Ok ice-brain, go and melt the rest of that ice and go sit down like your teacher told you to!" Gray looks like he'll argue but my glare stops him, "I won't tell you twice Gray!" Reluctantly he walks towards the ice, glancing towards the boy in the corner I call over "Lyon, you can help him too!" to which Lyon immediately obeys. Hearing snickering from behind me I turn towards the smirking Natsu but my glare wipes that smirk of his face quickly, "go and sit down Natsu, and try not to burn anything on the way!" He also starts to try and argue but I cut him off, "Now Natsu, go! Don't make me show you what a REAL dragon can do!" Reluctantly Natsu also walks off.

The rest of the History lesson was relatively uneventful, especially as we only had about 10 minutes of lesson left! Now sitting in the assembly hall in building 4, most of the room has fallen asleep, as per usual, but something about our head teacher's tone disturbed me. I was about to rule it out as nothing particularly important had been mentioned in the assembly until Mr Siegrain said his last message. "Now, I know many of you were concerned when the students from Tartaros Demonic Haven attacked us, well I can inform you that their head teacher Mr Zeref has told me that many of his students are not happy with our actions two weeks ago when a group of students broke into their college, and he has said he will not be held accountable for his students actions outside of his college grounds. So I advise you all to remain vigilant at all times, and try to travel in groups especially if you are outside at night, which I suggest you try to avoid as best as possible. That is all, you're dismissed." And with that the head teacher steps down to the side, I don't notice how similar he looks to Erza's boyfriend, I hardly even notice my row leaving, all I know is _they're coming back!_


	7. The True Power Of A Dragon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the final chapter of the fanfic. It's time for Crista's final battle with the demons of Tartaros Demonic Haven, but will our brave wizards be victorious or will the demons come out on top? Don't forget, it's Christmas soon too! Enjoy! :)

"Oh no, oh no, oh no. This is so bad Flash!" Walking through a field behind the college I'm panicking as my exceed tries to calm me down.

"Calm down Crista, it's not like they've made a move yet!" Flash attempts to cheer me up.

"Flash, you heard Mr Siegrain! They're not happy, it's only a matter of time before they come!" Flash keeps trying to cheer me up but I just shake my head at her, "Flash, I had a bad feeling before that assembly and it hasn't gone away!"

Flash sighs, her face full of confusion, "What's with all these bad feelings all of a sudden? It use to only be when Gajeel was bored looking for a fight, what are you - psychic?"

I glare at my exceed, _now isn't the time for joking!_ "Not as far as I know, but they haven't been wrong so far!" I say with a sigh. We were too busy arguing to even notice Mr Siegrain walking up behind us.

"Cristallia Draco I presume, what are you doing out here all alone? I thought I said to stay in groups." Taken by surprise at my head teachers sudden arrival I find my mind can't think of anything to do except identify the man in front of me.

Flash manages to come up with more of a response than just the guys name, "Hey, she's not alone! I'm here too!" Flash's tone shows that she's clearly irritated at not being included.

The head teacher smiled down at my small exceed, "yes I see that, although travelling with a cat isn't what I had meant when I said to travel in a group." He continues when Flash glares at him, "I don't intend to be rude exceed, it's just that dealing with demons may take more than one cat's help!"

Before Flash has the chance to reply I hear a familiar voice and it's not long before I see the pink head it belongs to, "Like we'd ever leave her alone with just Flash Mr Siegrain, there's nothing to worry about!" Natsu charms in with a smile.

"Oh, Natsu, and Gray, Erza, Wendy and Lucy too!" Mr Siegrain replies as he turns towards my incoming friends, again missing out the two exceeds with them.

Another voice calls out from the other side of Mr Siegrain, "we wouldn't leave her on her own either, Mr Siegrain, she did save us from being killed by thorns after all!" I'm surprised to see that it was Sting who defended me, with Rogue and Gajeel walking up behind him - their own exceeds in tow.

"Ah, I see she has a good group of friends here already then, well with all of you here I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." Mr Siegrain says with a smile and begins to walk off.

Before Mr Siegrain can get very far we hear a voice call out from behind us, "I see we've found a peppy little wizard and her friends!" I wish the voice wasn't so familiar as I turn around to see the Etherious Jackal, standing with Kyoka, Mard Geer, the young man I'd seen at the gate and a tall, well- built man with spiky black hair, similar to Gray's. There are other demons in the surrounding trees.

Mr Siegrain turns towards the young man, "Mr Zeref, I will not allow you or your students harm any of my students." The young man just grins at him in response, _this is the dark mage Zeref? The most feared and thought to be the most powerful mage in existence?_

Flash steps forward slightly, becoming in line with me, "I thought you weren't going to be responsible for your students actions, but if you're here then aren't you responsible Mr Zeref?" What was Flash up to? Whatever it was Mr Zeref wasn't intending on playing along and instead turns towards Jackal.

"Is she the one who keeps stopping you?" Jackal nods in response and Zeref glances at me before talking to the Etherious again, "She doesn't exactly look like much, she shouldn't have been any trouble for an Etherious demon." Jackal looks away from Zeref, clearly not happy with failing the dark mage, Zeref just turns towards the other man, "Silver, take her out." He says and waves lazily towards me.

Silver steps forwards and I take a small step away, not sure of what to expect. "Ice Devil,  Rage!" Silver sends and blizzard towards me, much like my own dragon roar, but there's no way that I, or Flash for that matter, have time to get out of the way so I grab Flash and try to shield her with my own body.

I'm surprised when the attack doesn't hit and even more surprised when I glance up and see Gajeel in front of me, taking the hit; he's sent flying backwards and lands in an unmoving heap on the ground. _Gajeel just took a hit from a Tartaros member for me? A devil slayer's attack for me?_ "GAJEEL!" Without even thinking I drop Flash and dart towards the unsuspecting Silver, I don't notice my now floating, silver hair, or the crystal gems on my shoulders, or the patches of shining scale patterns on my skin, I don't even notice the fact my body is glowing, all I can think about is the fact that he hurt my friend who was defending me! "Crystal Dragon, Sword Horn!" Surrounding my entire body with blazing crystals I head butt into Silver and send him flying backwards into the crowd of demons behind him, glancing behind me I see that Wendy and Chelia - who has arrived with Lyon, Levy, Cobra, and Laxus - are already healing Gajeel, and Sting, Rogue, Natsu, Gray and Erza are all running towards me to back me up.

It's not long before my friends reach me, Sting and Rogue immediately switch to their dragon force forms, Natsu just stares at me until I realise that he's waiting for me to help him into his dragon force form. I reach out and grab Natsu's shoulder, focusing my energy I flood his system with Ethernano and he takes on his dragon force form again. Within this time Silver has returned to his feet and started towards us, "Leave him to me!" Gray steps out in front of us, "no one gets to use ice for bad like that when I'm around!" he says as he takes up his ice-make casting stance.

Looking away from Gray I see that Zeref and the other demons have started their approach towards us. I see Sting turn to Rogue, "come on, let's go deal with that thorny freak, no one traps the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth like that!" Rogue nods at his friends and they run off towards Mard Geer.

Natsu runs past me towards the demons, "I've got Jackal!" is all he says as he launches into the fight.

Erza hesitates and turns to me first, "Crista, do you want me to..." but I cut her off before she can finish.

"Deal with Kyoka, I've got Zeref!" I order towards Erza and I'm surprised when Erza nods and obeys me, I'd expected her to fight me more on this choice. I turn back towards Zeref and he just laughs at my confidence. Raising my arms I cast my enchantments, "Plas Agilitas! Plas Tuela! Plas Virtus!" like Wendy's Ile enchantments my Plas spells increase my speed, defence and attack more than my standard enchantments do. Charging towards Zeref I start my entourage of attacks, "Crystal Dragon, Slash!" "Crystal Dragon, Talon!" "Crystal Dragon, Crushing Fang!" I launch attack after attack on my enemy and send him flying backwards.

I'm surprised when he easily recovers using only one hand to regain his composure. "Even with your dragon force a little wizard like you is not enough to beat me, you should quit while you're alive." Angered by him implying I'm weak I start to run towards him again, but he launches out an attack towards me "Death Orb" from just the name I know I need to avoid the attack and it's not hard with my enhanced speed, I side-somersault out of the path of the attack. He tuts at me, "You won't avoid this one so easily, Death Predation" a black dome surrounds him and starts to expand out towards me, and there's nowhere I can run to.

I feel the familiar paws gripping the back of my armour as I'm lifted into the air and we fly away from the attack, out of its range. "Thank God Flash, I thought I was gone for then!" I smile at my exceed as we float back down, I decide now is a good time to attack while Zeref's recovering from casting his spell, "Crystal Dragon, ROAR!" I launch my attack, direct hit! But it looks like Zeref wasn't even effected!

Landing back on the ground Zeref shakes his head at me, "I thought we were the ones fighting here wizard!" He briefly closes his eyes and then our surrounding change colour - more specifically they become inverted colours, "there, that's better, no more interruptions." He continues as I look worriedly at Flash, "no need to worry little wizard, they're unharmed, just frozen in time. All of them except the two of us. Now let's see what you're made of, can you even deal with some my demon creations - Nemesis!"

Demons rise from the surrounding rubble and start to rush towards me. I allow them to draw closer and raise one arm in the air, my hand spread out, "Fusion Dragon, Nova!" although not as strong as when I teamed up with Natsu the explosion is enough to get rid of the demons Zeref had sent to attack me.

"Very good, but how long can you keep this up I wonder?" More demons rise and I continue to fight them. Long after I'd lost count of how many demon armies Zeref had sent my way I'm definitely tiring, but it appears Zeref hasn't noticed. "I grow bored of this," _he's bored! While attacking me with demons, I don't know how much more I can take!_ "I think it's time to finish this. Death Pillar" Zeref conjures a pillar of his black, death magic and it spreads out towards me.

I drop down to my knees, _what can I do? Flash can't get me out, I can't fight it off, I can't dodge it!_ I've almost given up completely when I get an overwhelming urge to use my fusion dragon secret art and a voice in my head calls out to me, 'don't give up Crista, you're a dragon tamer, use the power they could never understand!' _MOTHER?!_ Standing back up I reach into the makeshift pockets in my battle armour and take out one of the crystals Levy had made for me and bite into it, Zeref's attack is mere inches from me, I feel the power from the crystals surge through me as my wings burst out of my shoulder blades; I'm taken completely by surprise when his attack disperses with each flap of my wings. Clearing the attack Zeref is left speechless at me standing unharmed, then I realise _he thought I was just an ordinary dragon slayer!_

"What? You thought I was just any old dragon slayer? Well you're wrong!" Flapping my wings I start to fly towards the dark mage, he's still in shock, "I'm the rarest type of dragon slayer, I'm a dragon tamer! And like I told you're Etherious demons, you're power gained from hatred and anger could never defeat the power I get from the bonds I hold with my friends!" To emphasise my point I stretch out my wings, they're usual colours show the powers of the dragon and dragon slayer friends I have: deep blue for my crystal dragon mother; bright orange for Natsu's fire dragon magic and my part flame dragon sister; pale, light blue for Wendy's sky dragon magic; pitch black for Rogue's shadow dragon magic; pure white for Sting's white dragon magic; electric yellow for Laxus's lighting dragon magic - all of which were already in my wings before the demons arrived; there's also a murky purple which I presume to be for Cobra's poison dragon magic, he did help rescue Wendy and showed up at this fight; and a silvery-grey which I presume to be Gajeel's iron dragon magic, he did take that hit for me and I am currently fighting for him - makes sense! "Dragon tamer secret art!" the many powers engulf me in the shape of a dragon as I fly towards Zeref, "Dragon Soul!" The dragon surrounding me leaves and attacks Zeref, breaking us free of his time freezing magic, I see the shock of all of the demons and wizards at my attack overpowering Zeref and it's not long before they all retreat back to their own college.

Landing back on the ground my wings and dragon force leave me, I am exhausted from the fight but despite that I feel better than I ever have before. The other fighting wizards allow the retreating demons to leave and run to crowd me showering me with congratulations, the group that had arrived with Chelia have taken Gajeel to the infirmary and the young girl is running towards us with Wendy to heal us from the fight, Mr Siegrain is also making his way towards us, when he arrives he immediately starts speaking to me, "My Cristallia, I had no idea we had such a strong wizard in our school." He says to me with a smile, "although I would've preferred for this to be settled peacefully"

"Come on Mr Siegrain! There's no way that would've gone peacefully! Anyway, it's not like anyone was seriously injured, we're all fine and Zeref and his demons were all able to run away! Well except maybe Gajeel, but that wasn't Crista's fault!" Natsu immediately jumps to my defence and everyone else backs us up.

"I guess you're right Natsu. Anyway, it was a very impressive fight Cristallia." Mr Siegrain smiles at me as he turns around to walk away.

"Oh, thank you Mr Siegrain." I reply and then steal my courage for my next sentence, "and Mr Siegrain..." the head teacher looks back towards me, "it's just Crista!" I say with a smile, he smiles back and agreed to call me by Crista from now on.

"Come on guys, we've got Christmas to plan!" Erza orders us back to the college once Wendy and Chelia have had a chance to heal all of us and we head back towards the dorms, all smiling and laughing.

***

Running down the dorm stairs with a bag of presents over one shoulder I feel so much like Santa, Flash is flying close behind with her own bag of gifts! It's Christmas day, finally! Natsu and co agreed to involve Rogue and Sting in this year's presents and that did involve Gajeel joining too. We're now on the way to the allotment where we'd decided to do our present exchange.

Running through the snow and ice covered allotment probably wasn't the best idea; just as I get into view of my friends I manage to fall over, I'm lucky though, Rogue was there to catch me before I hit the ground - only to fall over himself a few steps later and take me down with him as I try to keep him upright! We exchange gifts - as you do at Christmas! - Natsu got me a crystal pendent in the shape of a dragon, I got him a similar pendent in the shape of a flame. Most of the other gifts were similar - related to our magic in some way, although I got Happy the biggest fish I could find on the market and I got Erza a cake with a legendary strawberry and the promise of a picnic in the summer. I now hand over my gift to Gajeel, glad I'd managed to find Master Makarov before I'd got the stuff for this plan, he opens it and holds up the pendant with the symbol of Fairy Tail on it, "welcome to Fairy Tail Gajeel!" I say with a smile!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you're enjoy reading the second fanfic in the Fiore Sylva College series, any tips you can spare in the comments would be greatly appreciated! :)


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